A San Diego man named Donny Love Sr. was convicted today in federal court for concocting a courthouse bombing plot that involved asking his "on-again, off-again" girlfriend to bomb the courthouse for him, then trying to turn her into the FBI. Donny Love, you know nothing about love.

According to prosecutors, back in 2008 Love came up with his bombing scheme after reading the best-selling Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters, and checking out Answers.com. Instead of doing any actual prep work, however, he convinced his sometimes-girlfriend, Rachel Carlock, to buy all the bomb powder, steal the other bomb-making things, do all the courthouse-scoping, and then do the actual bombing. Carlock and a friend allegedly took some pipe-bombs over to the the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse one day and set them off; surveillance video shows the explosion. The bombs blasted out some windows, but didn't hurt anybody.

Then, Love suddenly found his ambition:

After the bombing, Love met with FBI agents and offered to provide information in return for $75,000 in reward money, and help in dismissing two state court convictions for which he was facing six years in prison, prosecutors said.

But somehow the plot became unraveled. Love was convicted on 10 charges and now faces up to 30 years in prison; Carlock and two friends who got involved in the scheme pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. A prosecutor says Carlock "wanted to do anything to be considered his girl ... He knew it and everyone knew it, that she'd do anything for this man." She probably should have joined the Obedient On-Again, Off-Again Girlfriends Club instead.

[Union-Tribune, MSNBC]